NHS Borders have strongly denied a local MSP’s claims that its issuing of take home kit for heroin addicts will encourage drug use, writes Kenny Paterson.

Statistics released this week that the region’s health board handed out more Naloxone kits - a tablet used to temporarily reverse the effects of a heroin overdose - per 1,000 people than any other area of Scotland.

It led John Lamont, the Scottish Conservatives former justice spokesman, to question NHS Borders use of the new national programme.

The Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire MSP said: “Many people will be shocked at the sheer number of Naloxone kits that are being handed out in the Borders. For every 1,000 problem drug users in the Borders we are handing out 248 of these kits which is significantly higher than every other region of Scotland.

“To be handing out nearly five times as many kits as the national average is concerning and there is clearly a need for a re-think about how many of these kits we are distributing.

“This drug will encourage heroin users to test their limits as they know that there will be a fall back should they overdose.

“This is not helping the situation and will encourage increased drug use. Drugs are a blight in our communities in the Borders, and while the recent spate of drug related arrests will help, we need to do more to discourage use.”

However, Dr Sheena MacDonald, medical director for NHS Borders, said the report’s findings showed the health authority was instead leading the way in preventing drug-related deaths by using Naloxone, which allows time for emergency services to provide help.

Dr MacDonald told us: “The idea behind this is that if a person is at high risk of overdose, they or a carer or friend will be able to administer the treatment or if they are present when someone else overdoses they can use it themselves to try and save a life.

“These kits are given to people at high risk of overdosing. This is a vulnerable group of people and evidence suggests that Naloxone will only impact on drug death figures significantly if a necessary proportion of opiate drug users (around 25 per cent) have access to Naloxone.

“NHS Borders is achieving this. 144 kits were provided which equates with a rate of 248 per every 1,000 drug users in the region being provided with Naloxone kits.

“Naloxone is only provided to individuals who are already using our treatment services and the higher number of kits provided locally actually means we are directly tackling the heart of problem drug use by individuals.

“Naloxone offers the chance to save a life and sends a clear message to individuals that they matter and that they can turn their life around.

“It is not the solution to drug-related deaths but it is an important intervention within a range of available treatment and support which can help reduce harm, encourage engagement with drug services and support people towards recovery.

“Borders Addictions Service is one of the highest performing in Scotland and will continue to offer support to drug users to reduce the number of drug related deaths in the Scottish Borders.”

A BORDERS-BASED tourism guru is to speak at the AGM of a local breakaway group.

B&B operators, dissatisfied with national promoters VisitScotland, set up the Borders Tourist Board five years ago.

The board has invited the successful businessman Tom Burnham, based in Earlston, to talk at its annual general later this month.

The Borders Tourist Board has 60 members and aims to boost that to 100, according to chairman Colin McGrath.

“We are inviting all our members, former members and other interested parties to our AGM with the aim of increasing our membership and continuing to be a viable and economic local alternative to VisitScotland, who should promote Scotland as a whole and leave the local tourist groups a to promote their area.”

Before setting up his own business four years ago, overseas trade, tourism and marketing consultant Mr Burnham, 67, worked for UK Trade & Investment, promoting tourism and helping operators in North-east England.

He said: “National and regional tourism boards never have enough money to do the marketing for people who are in the less favoured areas.

“Small providers have to get off their bottoms, club together and do it themselves. The Borders Tourist Board is doing that brilliantly – it’s a very good example – and I know they have got it in them to have a lot more than 60 members: the object is to fire up potential members to that fabulous project.”

Mr Burnham’s career has been in selling and persuasion. He has been invited to join the KGB three times. He has been in jail behind the then Iron Curtain on several more occasions – and says the key to being set free is smiling a lot.

He was captured by the regime when he was working in Romania one time: “I just smile and they smile back and decide that I must be harmless.”

He was accused of being a Vietnamese spy while in Thailand a few decades ago.

“I was in a very, very rural part, on the Mekon during the Vietnam War: there had been panics and they decided, since I was there and, just on the other side of the river where the Vietnam War was going on, I must be a spy. They were very Sherlock Holmes about it – if I was the managing director of a British company why was I travelling in a beaten up old taxi?”

He was managing director for Gillette in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand at the time.

Mr Burnham left Oxford University in 1967 with a degree in ancient German: “There didn’t seem any point in learning modern German because I spoke it fluently and I thought it would be much more interesting to go back 1,000 years. It wasn’t, it was excruciatingly boring.”

He went to work for Proctor & Gamble in Newcastle, at that time the real world university of marketing. He was head-hunted by a London advertising agency, then another in Singapore, where he stayed for a year.

He then spent several years selling Gillette razors in south-east Asia before setting up a bartering department for them behind the Iron Curtain.

He bought a farm in the Borders – Newton, between Denholm and Jedburgh – and divided his time between farming and bartering for Gillette, then for Lego, the plastic children’s building blocks.

He also found time to be a councillor on the then Borders Regional Council from 1982 to 1986. Then he was interviewed to become Lego’s managing director but he and his wife decided they wanted to stay in the Borders

“I had to live off my own hand and ended up setting up an export training scheme, “ he said.

That led to him working for UK Trade & Investment from 1997 to 2007: five years as an export promoter from the UK to the five Nordic countries and five as a tourism promoter – when he pioneered tourism networks and helped set up 15 in the north-east of England and one in Jedburgh. He has written a booklet on setting up tourism clusters.

He then decided to set up his own consultancy company, CTB Global, in international export trading, business development training, business expansion, rural tourism and rural community development

“My single core skill is selling things to people overseas – I just have the nack to do that,” he said.

Otherwise, he says most of his work pretty much boils down to: “You have a product and a consumer and you’ve got to find the best way to put them together.”

Mr Burnham will give his presentation, Confessions of a Tourism Network Guru” at Borders Tourist Board’s AGM at Edenbank House, Kelso on Wednesday August 29. For more information phone Mr McGrath on 07767 662075 or 01573 228346.

POLICE have named a cyclist who died in a crash near Peebles on Monday afternoon.

Mark Sanderson of Edinburgh, died at around 4.20pm on the A703 road after veering into the southbound carriageway and hitting a Fiat Panda.

It is believed the 53-year-old may have taken ill before the accident 300 metres north of the Tweeddale town.

The road was closed for three-and-a-half hours while experts examined the scene and vehicles.

Enquiries are ongoing but anyone with information is asked to contact Galashiels Police Station on 01896 664545 or the Force Communication Centre on 0131 311 3131.

A NEW coffee bar and shop could be set to open in Newcastleton.

Chrisa Dobson wishes to turn a barn at her Singdean home into The Strudel Bar – and promises to use local craftsmen to built it.

The applicant has previously run shops in Bath, Somerset, and also hopes to include seating outside the shop.

A decision is expected on the plans by the end of September.

Crowds flocked to Peebles High Street on Tuesday morning to watch the town’s red Royal Mail post box being painted gold in honour of local lad Scott Brash’s Olympic gold medal win in the Equestrian Showjumping Team final.

On Monday 26-year-old Scott became the first born-and-bred Borderer to win a gold medal in the history of the modern Olympics.

Proud locals also queued up in the town’s post office to buy commemorative first-class stamps picturing the four triumphant British horseriders: Brash, Peter Charles, Ben Maher and Nick Skelton.

The gold medal stamps were available within 24 hours in 500 post offices around the UK, including Peter’s home town of Alton, Ben’s in Bishop Stortford and Nick Skelton’s in Alcester, where post boxes were also painted gold.

An additional 4,700 post offices will also receive the stamps within a week. Scott’s is the 17th gold medal stamp to be issued by the Royal Mail.

Speaking to TheSouthern on the street, Scott’s uncle, Walter Brash, described the moment he watched his nephew win gold.

“It was just unbelievable,” he said. “We were all in the Crown (Hotel). The whole of the town was there watching I think. I was on the edge of the chair, and jumped for joy. We were all over the fence with him. Every jump he’s done we’ve been watching him.

“I think Scott will be relieved. But he’s Mr Cool – nothing bothers him. When he was picked for the Olympics, he was just ecstatic, over the moon. It was the first time I’d ever seen him nervous.

“The lad’s worked so hard to get there, and he’s never had any silver spoon in his mouth or anything. He’s done it all himself.

“He’s a quiet laddie, dedicated to the horses, and thinks about nothing else but the horses. He’s got such a way with horses, it’s unbelievable.

“Stanley (Brash, Scott’s father) will be over the moon. I mean, he’d never have expected anything like this.

“I’m just so proud of him. I’ve always been proud of Scott: he’s done so well. He’s done the country proud and he’s done Peebles proud. It’ll mean a great deal for Peebles. People will come here to see the town he came from. The tourist trade should boost up.”

Meanwhile, Glenrath Farms owner John Campbell has promised to paint both post boxes in the Peeblesshire hamlet of Manor gold in tribute to Brash’s success.

He said: “He is my next door neighbour in Manor and if the Royal Mail don’t paint our post boxes gold then I will do it.

“It is a unbelievable achievement considering where he has come from. Everyone in Manor is very, very supportive of all Scott has done.”

PONCHOS, sweets and costumes were among the items purchased with Scottish Borders Council credit cards, totalling almost £150,000 since 2007, writes Kenny Paterson.

The details of each departments spending have been revealed following a Freedom of Information request.

Resources racked up the biggest bill, using credit cards for £63,620 worth of purchases in the last five years.

But education, which has an annual budget of £94million, the largest at Newtown, only spent £943 in three years.

However, SBC has defended the spending, with a spokesman telling TheSouthern: “We do not pay any interest on credit cards.”

An FoI request last year showed former chief executive David Hume’s departmental credit card had been used for transactions worth £9,000 over three financial years.

Hawick councillor David Paterson then tabled another FoI appeal which showed the directors of four SBC departments all had cards, leading the Independent member to ask why elected councillors had not been asked to sanction the use of the cards.

The latest FoI figures show chief executive spending is now amalgamated with resources since the last financial year.

In 2011/12, resources credit card was used for a variety of purchases at different prices, from a £1,612 return flight from Edinburgh to Bristol, 5,000 text messages at £291, a Freedom of Information in Scotland book worth £57 and coffees priced at £4.20.

Previously, the department paid £34.94 for sweets for children and £72.49 for costumes in 2010.

Education’s biggest bill was training at £611 in 2008, while environment and infrastructure shelled out £900 in gift vouchers in March last year.

Planning, which was amalgamated with environment and infrastructure in 2011/12, spent £75.89 on 10 packs of 10 disposible ponchos in 2009 and £86.04 on whistles in 2007. While social work spending on a credit card ranged from a £1.10 parking charge to two return flights from Edinburgh to Prague costing almost £500, while technical services paid £563 for St Andrew’s flags in September 2009.

An SBC spokesman said: “Credit cards are a common method of purchasing in both the public and private sector and some of the spend is recovered from external sources.

“There are guidelines for use of the card. Using a credit card is a more streamlined, more efficient and less costly way of paying for goods and services

Some discounts are only available via online purchasing and some items may only be available from online sources.”

He added that the total credit card spent for directors and departments from 2008 to 2011 was £97,000, compared to SBC’s budget of £264million for the current financial year.

SCOTTISH BORDERS COUNCIL is facing a major fine for data breaches after hundreds of pension records were sent for recycling.

However, the council has reassured staff it is confident no personal information was accessed.

SBC said police were alerted by a member of the public after the records were discovered within a recycling centre. The records, found last year, mostly related to former employees

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will issue a fine at the end of the month.

The council said the penalty for the breach was likely to be substantial and it had also been issued notice that an ICO audit would be carried out in the next 12 months.

A total of 676 files relating to SBC’s Local Government Pension Scheme had been deposited in a recycling bank by an external supplier in September 2011.

The council recovered all the files, checked them against records and then securely destroyed them.

Another 172 files had been processed at another bank but the council said this would have been carried out mechanically.

The records mainly related to former employees of the council and the council’s partner agencies who left the pension scheme between 2008 and 2011.

The arrangement with the contractor involved in the breach was terminated, but the council said it had been digitising pension records in the same manner since 2005.

SBC chief executive Tracey Logan said: “I would like to reassure individuals who may have been affected that, based on the in-depth investigation carried out by our officers, we are confident that no personal information was accessed and the breach was contained upon its discovery.

“Based on the assessment of risk and due to the time that has elapsed since the breach was discovered, we have taken the decision not to write to all individuals.”

However, she urged anyone who had concerns to contact the council on 01835 825052 or email pensions@scotborders.gov.uk

Motorists are being warned of traffic disruptions over the next three or four months due to convoys of lorries carrying abnormal loads to a wind farm site near Westruther.

Lorries are currently travelling the A68 over Soutra to Carfraemill and then south on the A697 to Westruther, between 6am and 7.30am, and drivers can expect delays until November.

Drivers heading north on these roads are being directed by police to pull over for approximately two minutes to allow safe passage of the lorries. Drivers travelling south who get caught behind the convoy face longer travel times.

Police advise drivers who intend travelling south on these roads to bear this in mind when considering journey times and where possible to use alternative routes to their destination.

IT’S hard to believe that after the thousands of words already in print about the Waverley rail route, anything new could be said.

However, David Spaven, author of Waverley Route: The life, death and rebirth of the Borders railway, which is published this week, has trawled through a mass of public and private archives and official records to bring the story bang up to date.

In his new book, Mr Spaven asserts that the 1969 closure of the 98-mile Waverley Route from Edinburgh to Carlisle, via Galashiels and Hawick – long regarded as the worst of the Beeching rail cuts – may have been clinched by the absence of two key government ministers from a crucial Westminster meeting.

The book claims that Anthony Crosland MP and Lord Brown of Machrihanish – known supporters of keeping the railway from Hawick to Edinburgh – missed the meeting on May 2, 1968, at which the Ministerial Committee on Environmental Planning sealed the fate of the entire Borders railway.

The decision left the Borders as the only region of Britain without a rail service. It was, it meant, writes Mr Spaven, that the course of Borders’ history may have been altered by the most mundane of chance occurrences.”

Mr Spaven, who spent two-and-a-half years researching material for the book, also reveals that Transport Minister, Richard Marsh, who implemented the closure decision, privately admitted 38 years later to a retired senior railway manage that looking back on his public life, the biggest mistake he had made was to authorise closure of the Waverley Route.

Research reveals that Labour’s fiery Secretary of State for Scotland, Willie Ross MP, had also argued strongly until the very end for retention of the line north of Hawick, and in a personal memo to then Prime Minister Harold Wilson, begged the veteran Labour politician to reverse the closure decision.

The book traces the story from the 1963 publication of the Beeching Report through closure to the later campaigns to re-open the line, culminating in the planned opening of the new Borders Railway from Edinburgh to Tweedbank in 2014-15.

The author criticises the failure of government to protect the solum (trackbed) of the abandoned railway from the early 1970s to the mid 1990s – allowing encroachment by new roads and housing developments – and cites evidence that this has added

up to 40% to the cost of re-opening the line.

A rail freight consultant by profession, Mr Spaven has spent his working life in and

around the railway industry. His first book – Mapping the Railways – was published by HarperCollins in 2011, and his follow-up volume Britain’s Scenic Railways

is published by HarperCollins in next month.

Speaking ahead of last night’s book launch in Stow, Mr Spaven, who is a life member of the Borders rail campaign group, says many of the previous books on the Waverley line tended to be of the photo album format.

“I felt nobody had really delved into the political, social and business elements of the story,” he told The Southern.

“I found out all kinds of interesting information about the closure that I hadn’t appreciated, including how close people were to saving the line.

“I also wanted to put the record straight about what happened in the 1960s. The fact that the Borders rail line will re-open is due in no small part to the effort of the unpaid volunteer campaigners of the past.

“It was a very long campaign and I believe the re-opening of the line will be transformative in its impact.”

And when the railway is finally re-opened, it will be a record-breaker - the longest line to open in Scotland since the Fort William-Mallaig railway in 1901, and the longest rail re-opening project in modern British history.

•Waverley Route: the life, death and rebirth of the Borders Railway (collector’s edition hardback 288 pages £20; paperback 256 pages £14.99) is published by Argyll Publishing on August 29.

EARLSTON High School teenagers are on a mission to raise money to help children in Peru.

The 10 modern studies students need to raise £10,000 to take part in a Vine Trust initiative next June and each needs to raise a further £2,200 to cover their trip costs.

One of the organisers, Avril Tobin said: “The children heard about the Vine Trust from modern studies teacher Richard Burrell. It caught their imagination – they are all good kids who want to make a difference to children who are less fortunate than themselves.

“They will be helping to build an orphanage. They know it will be challenging, and certainly not a holiday.”

The students involved are Chloe Tobin-Kemmer, Katherine Arkley, Eilidh Hogg, Alice Thomson, Zara Retallick, Ella Warner, Mary Beth Patterson, Calum Brydon-Leigh, Scott Hamilton and Greg Crighton.

Eyemouth and Berwickshire high schools will also be taking part in the project and at sponsored events involving the three schools are planned, starting with a bed-push from Duns to Eyemouth and sleepover in cardboard boxes, at the end of next month.

The youngsters’s next fundraiser will be a car boot sale at Radio Borders in Tweedbank on Sunday August 26. Other planned events include a coffee morning in the Corn Exchange, Melrose on September 8, afternoon tea in Gattonside on September 16 and dinner with speakers at Melrose Rugby Club on December 1.

RETIRED Galashiels teachers were back home on Sunday – after walking nearly 400 miles from London.

The former PE teachers, Alastair and Mary Christie, undertook the hike unsupported in aid of the Borders MS Society.

So far they have raised over £3,000, with more money coming in, from their 21-day adventure walking 377 miles.

Mrs Christie, 58, explained: “My sister has MS and she’s received quite a bit of help from the Borders MS Society and we thought we would like to give something back.”

Alastair, 61, cycled from London to Edinburgh four years ago and said he would like the challenge of walking it, so the pair set off on July 23 and arrived back at their church, St Peters, in the town on Sunday morning.

“We hadn’t factored into the training enough that we would be walking with backpacks on. It really was a challenge but it was good,” Mrs Christie said.

The pair stayed with friends and in B&Bs and averaged about 18 miles a day, with the longest day 23.

Asked what was the highlight of the walk, Mrs Christie said: “The really nice people we met along the way.”

The pair called in at a golf club early one morning for a cup of coffee and within 10 minutes the people there had collected more than £50 for their cause.

“We had people stopping at the side of the road giving us money. The whole experience was good, ” said Mrs Christie.

The toughest days were coming into Otterburn and over Carter Bar because it was so hot she said, “but we just kept each other going”.

She added: “I was quite emotional at the end – everybody said how well we had done and that it was an achievement.”

A BRAVE Tweedbank mum is running not just for her son next month but for all those with heart disease.

Now 12, Ross Falconer was born with heart failure and immediately needed a pacemaker which surgeons fitted when he was just five days old.

His mum, Lyn, told us: “I am running to help children and adults with heart conditions, like Ross, to lead a normal life and I am also running in memory of all the people who have lost their lives due to heart failure.”

Lyn will line up for the biggest half-marathon in Europe in the Great North Run. Already she has raised £850 online for the British Heart Foundation and she hopes to top the £1,000 mark.

Lyn, with husband Ted, has two other children Christie, 17 and Amy, 19. She was quite far through her pregnancy with Ross when a scan at the Borders General Hospital revealed her baby’s heart was only making 45 beats per minute.

She told us: “I was taken to Yorkhill children’s hospital in Glasgow where we were told Ross had heart failure and would need a heart pacemaker operation as soon as he was born.”

Ross was born six weeks early and was one of the youngest children ever to have a pacemaker fitted, when he was just five days old

Lyn went on: “He was so small the pacemaker had to be put under the skin on his stomach as it didn’t fit under his arm. At two weeks old, Ross had to endure a further heart operation and a blood transfusion and he became very poorly due to problems with his liver and blood.

“It was a really difficult time for the whole family.”

But her son has pulled through: he has had his pacemaker replaced twice, when he was two and again at nine.

Lyn said: “We are very lucky as Ross leads a normal, life unlike a lot of children and adults with heart conditions. He is full of energy and confidence and loves athletics, cycling, swimming, badminton and computer games.”

Lyn, 45, says: “I am trying to raise as much money as I can for the British Heart Foundation to fund research into heart conditions. Without their research, Ross would not have been able to have his pacemaker fitted when he was five days old.”

She started jogging four years ago and says: “At that time I couldn’t even run 100 metres!”

But she’s since had “lots of help” from her Jogscotland group at the Scottish Public Pensions Agency where she works.”

She admitted: “The training for my first half marathon has been really hard, especially with all the rain and cold weather we’ve had this summer, but if it saves just one person with a heart condition then it will be worth it.”

Anyone wishing to donate should visit www.justgiving.com/Lyn-Falconer

The door has opened a little wider for unmarried couples to claim financial compensation from one another when they split up.

In a landmark Supreme Court ruling last month, Angus Grant was told he should pay Jessamine Gow £39,500 after the cohabiting pensioners’ relationship ended. The right to compensation for unmarried couples became available under section 28 of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, but had not been tested in the Supreme Court until recently.

As a result, courts can now expect an increased flow of new claims in the months and years ahead.

Family law practitioners are also poised for a big increase in demand for cohabitation agreements from couples setting up home together. Recent government estimates put the number of Scottish adults cohabiting at more than 370,000 and 
rising.

A cohabitation agreement allows the couple to regulate their own affairs and state what they wish to happen should they ever separate, providing some financial certainty in the event of unmarried couples breaking up.

Although the Supreme Court, led by Scottish judge Lord Hope, stressed that the ruling does not legally equate cohabiting couples with married ones, it does allow unmarried couples to seek financial compensation similar to divorcing couples, but without the assumption of an equal division of assets.

The Supreme Court – overturning an earlier Court of Session ruling – heard that the couple met in 2001, when Mr Grant was 58 and Ms Gow was 64.

Within a year he asked her to move into his house in Penicuik. In 2003 Ms Gow sold her flat in Edinburgh, encouraged by Mr Grant. They separated in 2008.

The compensation was largely for the value the flat would have gone up by had she not sold it. The court heard that the proceeds were used “partly for her own purposes and partly for the couple’s living 
expenses”.

The family law team at Lindsays welcomes the clarity brought by this ruling.

This decision has been keenly awaited among family lawyers in Scotland. It has been difficult until now to give clients in cohabitation cases clear legal advice about their rights and potential liabilities. This decision clarifies how such claims should be approached.

The effect will be to widen the scope of possible claims at the end of a cohabitation.

While no floodgates are likely to open, we can predict that there will be many more cohabitation claims in the future – not because more cohabitations are going to break down, but because more claims will be worth making.

Cohabitants in Scotland should now carefully consider a cohabitation agreement specifying who, if anyone, is going to get what, if anything, in the event of a breakdown.

A cohabitation agreement may be about as romantic as a pair of beige polyester bedsocks, but it is more useful.

The other important thing for cohabitants to remember is 
that there is a strict time-bar for making a statutory claim, so if 
you think you may have a claim, 
you need to get the case started within 12 months of the end of the cohabitation.

Lesley Gordon is head of family law at Lindsays

IF Borders youngsters are to get the chance to emulate Peebles show jumper Scott Brash and win Olympic gold medals of their own, then the Scottish Government has to step up to the plate and pledge appropriate funding.

That is the message coming through from those involved in sports provision and management in the Borders this week, following the closing of the hugely successful London 2012 Olympic Games.

Among them was David Ferguson, chief rugby writer for The Scotsman andvice-chairman of Borders Sport and Leisure Trust. He says Team GB’s 65-medal haul from the London games was not due to chance or luck, but from more than a decade’s worth of significant improvements in funding for facilities, coaches and programmes.

“But for Scotland to follow this and give our athletes the chance to win medals in Glasgow in 2014 [Commonwealth Games] and at Rio 2016 [Olympics], there has to be investment in sports facilities, structures and coaches,” Mr Ferguson told us.

“We have a good number of Borders athletes already pushing for the Commonwealth Games and to follow Peebles gold medallist Scott Brash, and Paralympians such as Libby Clegg, and compete in Rio.

“The Borders has a great history of producing sporting talent and it is still doing so. Excellent and willing coaches are still there too, but international sport has risen to incredible levels of competition in the 21st century and the reality at that level is that success comes through investment.

“There is no doubt that we need government funding and I am hoping to hear something positive on a sporting legacy in Scotland from Alex Salmond shortly.”

Helped by sportscotland, the trust has invested around £2million of new money in local facilities, but Mr Ferguson says significant cutbacks in government funding in the past two years, which are forecast to continue, will not help sustain any Olympic legacy.

However, he believes the region is prepared to cope with the expected upsurge in sporting interest in the wake of London 2012.

Under their chief executive, Ewan Jackson, trust staff are already moving on a crucial plan to develop sports hubs in every part of the Borders, with a major sports conference being planned for Galashiels in November.

Mr Ferguson says it follows a similar event staged with SBC last year, and will bring all sports together to plan for the future.

“SBC, sportscotland, the Scottish Government are all working with us on it and we plan to launch new hubs then,” he said. “Our new community sports hub manager, Mark Drummond, is leading that and will be meeting sports clubs, coaches, teachers, administrators and athletes across the region over the next three months to prepare for it.”

He added that the trust’s Active Schools programme co-ordinators and its development officers are already driving an Olympics legacy programme –the Olympic passport initiative was a huge success this summer in providing taster sessions in dozens of sports for thousands of youngsters.

“We knew the Olympics would be a great opportunity and so everyone has been gearing up for some time to use the inspiration of the games,” he said. And Mr Ferguson says it is not all about young people or winning Olympic medals, with investment in sport and leisure proven to benefit communities through reduced crime, improved fitness, health and wellbeing, greater confidence and community spirit.

Scottish Borders Council executive member for education Sandy Aitchison (Galashiels, Borders Party) says London 2012 has boosted the national morale and the local authority now needs to redouble its efforts to connect with communities, sporting groups, coaches, parents, children and schools to help get the best from the resources available.

“Unfortunately, this wet summer has not helped with many outdoor facilities almost unplayable and an uncertain winter just round the corner, but our facilities are improving all the time and we just have to keep going,” he added.

But Peebles-based sports academic Ron Sutherland says SBC is historically among the lowest-spending Scottish local authorities per head of population on sport.

Mr Sutherland commented: “Borders athletes urgently require a suitable indoor training centre of sporting excellence, reflecting their share of London and Glasgow games legacy.

“SBC should up its game, and finally give us a level competitive playing field.”

A SPECIAL meeting will be held tomorrow to discuss a planning application for almost 400 homes in Galashiels.

Persimmon hope to build 397 houses in the second stage of its 500-home development at Easter Langlee.

The bid was considered by Galashiels Community Council earlier this month, with fears raised over school provision and traffic.

The meeting to discuss the plans further will be held in the Burgh Chambers at 7pm on Wednesday.

SCOTTISH Borders LGBT Film and Performing Arts Festival returns for a second year this weekend.

Named Rainbow Kilts, the theme for 2012 is challenging homophobia, following up research commissioned last year which looked at what it was like to live in the Borders for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The festival, based at the Heart of Hawick, kicks off at 3pm tomorrow with the first of two Scottish premieres. Gen Silent is a documentary film by Stu Maddox which addresses the challenges that older LGBT people face within the care system. The screening will be followed by a question and answer panel with representatives from NHS Borders and Scottish Borders Council, who are both supporting the event.

On Sunday, at 4pm, sees the second film, Jan’s Coming Out, which follow the story of Jan Walker, a 50-year-old woman who had been married for 23 years and had three children before watching American gay TV drama series The L Word.

Other events throughout the weekend include the launch of LGBT Youth’s Breaking Down The Borders impact report, and the group’s performance, alongside Borders Youth Theatre, of the play Don’t Judge Me.

Shields Performing Arts Academy and bands including SPAT will also provide entertainment, while a disco will be held in the Tower Inn in Hawick on Saturday.

Susan Hart, chair of the Scottish Borders LGBT Equality Forum and main organiser of the festival, said: “We were delighted by how well attended last year’s festival was.

“Feedback from the people who came along was great and when we spoke to the local traders they said that they had noticed a really positive atmosphere around the town over the weekend and that it had been good for business.

“Everyone was keen to support a repeat event, so here we are with the second of what we hope will become an annual festival.”

NHS Borders, SBC, Lothian and Borders police and fire services and LGBT Youth Borders will all have representatives who have staff at Heart of Hawick on Friday and Saturday.

For more information about the festival and the LGBT Equality Forum, visit www.scotsborderslgbt.co.uk

TWO abandoned cockerels have been found on a remote farm near Langholm.

The wandering pair, named Pete and Dud, were discovered on Middle Moss Farm last Wednesday.

The Scottish SPCA are now appealing for information on the homeless birds, which are being cared for at Dunragit Kennels in Stranraer.

Animal Rescue Officer Tricia Smith said: “It seems very likely Pete and Dud have been abandoned as the land they were found on is so remote.

“They are both healthy and friendly birds, around a year old, but they were quite hungry when I rescued them.

“Pete and Dud’s wings have been clipped in the last three to six months which suggests they have been looked after until recently.

“It’s possible someone has bought them believing they were chickens and, when they discovered they were cockerels, decided they no longer wanted them.

“We would urge anyone who recognises them and knows who may have owned them to contact us as soon as possible.

“Pete and Dud will remain in our care and we’ll soon be looking to find them permanent homes.”

Scottish SPCA say abandoning an animal is a criminal offence and anyone found guilty of doing so can expect to be banned from keeping animals for a fixed period or life.

Anyone with information is being urged to contact the Scottish SPCA Animal Helpline on 03000 999 999.

Borders Asperger and Autism Group Support is offering a rare opportunity for Borders carers and individuals to have a free 30-minute consultation with a qualified solicitor experienced in the legal minefields of mental health law, community care law, adults with incapacity law, powers of attorney and will preparation.

Morisons Solicitors, with offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh, has selected Borders Asperger & Autism Group Support to be one of its nominated charities.

Morisons Solicitors has many years experience in these complex areas of law and understands the difficulties encountered by carers and the individuals they care for and support. The firm appreciates that caring for an adult with incapacity, regardless of age, can be a challenging but rewarding experience and believe that access to advice and information on the management of a person’s welfare and financial affairs can mean one less thing to worry about when tackling daily care.

Morisons’ award-winning private client team has been working in social care management for many years, liaising with families, charities and care providers. It also has a dedicated team set up to plan for the Scottish Government’s proposed changes to social care management which will shortly become law.

Solicitor, Emma Horne will be available for three half-day advice sessions across the Borders, where individuals can book a 30-minute consultation which will cover advice on a wide range of issues including:

z Powers of Attorney

z Intervention Orders, Guardianship Orders and Access to an Adult’s Funds

z Discretionary Trusts

z Wills

z Second Opinions

z Support to Charities/Care Providers

To book an appointment for a free consultation at any of the venues below, please contact BAAGS on 01896 668961 or email: baagsmail@yahoo.co.uk

z Wednesday September 19, noon–4pm ; Southfield Community Centre, Station Road, Duns

z Wednesday October 17, noon-4pm – Focus Centre, Livingstone Place, Galashiels

z Wednesday November 14, noon-4pm – The Bridge, Port Brae, Town Centre, Peebles

Scaled down plans for a wind farm in Berwickshire will go on display later this month.

PNE Wind UK Ltd originally planned 10 turbines on land at Brunta Hill, near Westruther.

However, it has now cut the number to eight and also reduced the height of the proposed turbines.

Exhibitions are scheduled to take place at Lauder Public Hall and Westruther Village Hall on August 30 and 31 to gather public opinion.

The revised plans will be submitted to Scottish Borders Council in the autumn.

People from across the Borders are being invited to make their own unique contribution to a piece of art that is being produced to reflect the numerous donations that are being made to The Margaret Kerr Unit Appeal.

‘Lasting impressions’ will be a mosaic of handmade tiles created by Jedburgh-based artist Clair Norris. Each tile will be imprinted with fabrics and objects that will give texture to the piece. The tiles will be built up into a number of hexagonal panels designed to flow across the wall of one of the day lounges within the new palliative care unit at the Borders General Hospital. Their layout will hint at the Borders rolling hills and rivers, and the patchwork of fields.

“Art will be an embedded component of The Margaret Kerr Unit and aspires to offer calming reflection and uplifting enjoyment of the arts during a patient’s stay in the Unit,” explains Jane Kelly, Art Co-ordinator for The Margaret Kerr Unit.

“An increasing body of research evidences that well designed environments can contribute positively to health and wellbeing. This is deemed particularly significant for hospitals where the stress experienced by patients and visitors can potentially be reduced by a healing environment created through a co-ordinated combination of architecture, interior design, landscape and art. Following an invitation to artists issued earlier in the year a total of seven commissions have been awarded, each of which will bring something very different to this purpose built specialist unit.”

The team responsible for the creation of The Margaret Kerr Unit would like as many people as possible to contribute to ‘Lasting Impressions’ and invite you to a drop-in workshop on Thursday, September 6, in discussion rooms 2 & 3 in the Education Centre at the Borders General Hospital between 10am and 4pm. You may wish to create a tile in memory of a loved one, to represent a donation that you have made to the appeal, or simply to express yourself and contribute to this unique piece of work. The process takes approximately 10 minutes. Items used in past projects have included wedding rings, other jewellery and vintage lace. The item you choose to bring will not be damaged by the process. The design of ‘Lasting Impressions’ also allows for growth and new panels will be added organically over time.

To register your interest or for further information please contact Clare Oliver on 01896 828261.

Please note that booking is not necessary, although it would be helpful to know if you intend to participate. You do not have to have made a donation to The Margaret Kerr Unit appeal to participate, although there will be an opportunity to do so, should you wish.